Along with an 'Interesting Index' - Hang on! This isn't one of your boring old indexes. This is a horrible index. It's the only index in the world where you will find 'backside wiping', 'dog-poo', 'horse-flesh soup' and all the other things you really HAVE to know if you want to be a 'horrible historian'.Read it and creep.'

A colourful handbook, written in a variety of texts, packed full of information and written with the usual Deary wit, e.g.:

'Perfect PaladinsPaladin means 'man of the palace'. It was the name Emperor Charlemagne gave to his 12 favourite knights. Paladins were the real knights in shining armour - even before shining armour had been invented. They were the knights who rode out looking left and right for wrongs to rights and baddies to fight. One of the great paladins was Roland who fought for Charlemagne in AD778.There is a famous poem that tells his tale...................'

I like the series, they are funny and tell some of the lesser told parts of history.One have to remember that they are written for 10-15 year old-ish.the author have said that it is difficult not to write something wrong, because the first constants used to be considered the truth, but by the time the rest of the book had been written, those truths had been disproved.Also a good theme in the books is that you shouldn't always believe what a historian have written, because the winner writes the history.